Printed by Samuel Bentley & Co.
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
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PREFACE.

No one can give an adequate view of the general life of a colonist,
unless he has been one himself. Unless he has experienced all the
various gradations of colonial existence, from that of the pioneer in
the backwoods and the inhabitant of a shanty, up to the epoch of his
career, when he becomes the owner, by his own exertions, of a
comfortable house and well-cleared farm, affording him the comforts and
many of the luxuries of civilization, he is hardly competent to write
on such a subject. I have myself passed through all these grades. I
have had the honour of filling many colonial appointments, such as
Commissioner of the Court of Requests, and Justice of the Peace. My
commission in her Majesty's Militia, and my connection with the Canada
Company, have also afforded me some opportunities of acquiring
additional information. I was in the Company's service during the early
settlement of Guelph and also of Goderich, in the Huron tract. I am,
therefore, as intimately acquainted with those flourishing settlements
as with the townships in my own county of Peterborough.

Upon my return to my native country in August, on a visit to my
venerable mother, I was advised by my family to give my colonial
experience to the world in a plain, practical manner. I followed the
flattering suggestions of relatives so distinguished for literary
attainments, and so dear to my affections, and "Twenty-seven Years in